Comeback Communities: Neighborworks America in New Orleans

May 27, 2015

In March of this year, the folks from Storycorps set up shop in New Orleans to record the Katrina story from the perspective of New Orleanians who lived through the tragedy. They teamed up with Neighborworks America to feature some of the interviews as part of the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. These interviews will be played at the Comeback Communities summit here in New Orleans next month and will be accompanied by videos comprised of images that yours truly has been working on over the last few weeks. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some courageous, giving, brilliant, and awe-inspiring individuals and had the privilege of photographing them and telling their stories with my lens. I’ll be rolling out posts from these shoots as we gear up for the Summit in June. But in the meantime, you can see some of my work on the Neighborworks America website alongside interviews with New Orleanians who work to make a difference.

The first shoot was with Dwayne Boudreaux, owner of Circle Foods Store on St. Bernard ave in the 7th ward of New Orleans. After nearly a decade of being shuttered following the storm, Dwayne worked to re-open his store in a neighborhood that desperately needed to “make groceries”. Read his story (and see my images!) here: Comeback Communities: Reversing Food Deserts with Neighborhood Grocers.